Sources of Instability and the Crisis of Communist Party Rule

This talk will focus on whether China’s Communist Party controlled government is a stable or unstable, paying special attention to why political corruption is such an explosive issue, and why corruption poses a serious threat to the state.

Ralph Thaxton is a Professor of Politics at the Brandeis University and an expert on Chinese politics, international relations of East Asia, comparative revolutions, and comparative democratic movements. His publications include Salt of the Earth: The Political Origins of Peasant Protest and Communist Revolution in China and China Turned Rightside Up: Revolutionary Legitimacy in the Peasant World. Professor Thaxton received his PhD in Political Science from University of Wisconsin.

Sponsored by Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, the Annette Strauss Internationalizing Dallas Lecture Series, and the SMU Asian Studies program